INKINNOVATION
by the lone geisha
Summary: Two years have passed, Meggie is happily in love with Doria, someone returns, and something is about to happen...
1. Chapter 1

"I'm sorry, Farid," I said, gently removing his hand from my shoulder. "But I don't want to leave."

"Why not?" He tried to kiss me, but I turned my face away. Even though I felt tears coming to my eyes. _Do you remember?_

"I wish you luck," I said, kissing him on the cheek. He still had the most beautiful eyes of any boy I'd ever seen. But now my heart beat so much faster for someone else.

I walked away from Farid, over to my future husband, and looked into his bright fairy-blue eyes, "maybe you could build me one of those, I've always liked the idea of flying."

* * *

><p>"Meggie, I love you, why does your father want us to wait to get married?"<p>

I rolled my eyes at him, it seemed as though Doria asked that everyday, "Mo explained this to you already, I'm 15, where we come from people get married when they're considered adults."

"Humph,"

I giggled and kissed him. We were sitting a little ways from the rest of the strolling players who were sitting around a fire, eating, while Battista was singing the last Bluejay song. "So, how is it going with the flying machine?" I asked, that would always distract him from any controversial subject.

"I'm making a lot of progress actually, it's a good thing the Bluejay knows enough about that math stuff to help me with measurements and figuring out how it will fly, it could be ready to start testing in a few months," he was smiling very proudly, I marveled and of course I started smiling back, it's really hard not to.

"That's really cool, maybe when your finished we can fly to see the giants!" I said remembering the giant that had saved the children of Ombra only two years ago from the greedy Milksop, I also remembered Doria, being lifted up the tree in a net, all but crushed, and I thought it was the giant at first, but of course it was from the fight. I shuttered at the thought.

"Are you cold?" Doria asked with a worried expression, immediately wrapping his arms around my shoulders.

"Maybe a little," it wasn't a lie, winter was just about ending, soon the blue fairies would be coming out, right now there's only those annoying rainbow fairies Orpheus had created, they were always trying to pull out my hair for their nests, they pull harder than the blue fairies do.

Battista started singing a newer song, it was about how Violante is ruling Ombra. Since the Adderhead was killed and the Milksop was scared off the throne, she had taken his place and had distributed the silver to the many widows in Ombra, changing her name from Her Ugliness to Her Kindliness. She also took her sons advice and had the strolling players perform at the castle everyday, Jacopo would always come out to watch Dustfinger perform his breathtaking fire eating.

"Oh! I found something in the Wayless Wood today," he reached behind him and pulled out a flower, it was a dark dark blue that seemed to resonate, it looked a lot like a rose, except its petals were much larger and were pointed instead of round, and it was completely dazzling.

"It's beautiful! How'd you find it?" I had never seen a flower anything like it before.

"It doesn't matter," he handed me the flower, "smell it," he was smiling again.

I sniffed it and it smelled as beautiful as it looked, I think I smelled something rosy, and something else I couldn't quite place. I smiled at him. "but seriously, how did you-" but suddenly Doria stood up and walked in front of me in a defensive position, I peered out to see who it was and was shocked.


	2. Chapter 2

It was terrible. The way he was looking at me, the same way Doria looks at me, except maybe a little more desperate and sad.

He still loves me.

Farid.

And I stopped loving him two years ago.

"What are you doing here?" Doria was still very jealous of Farid, he was even more hostile now than the last time Farid was in Ombra, which was also two years ago. When Farid finally looked away from me and at Doria his gaze was so hateful that Doria flinched.

"He came to see Dustfinger, obviously," it sounded bitterer than I had intended, but Farid was offended.

"That's not my only reason," he said quietly, looking at me again, with his dark eyes, and the same sad look. _How could he have the nerve to come back, after all this time?_

"What is that 'other reason'?" Doria asked, irritated. Farid was still looking at me, after a while I was starting to get annoyed…

"I'm going to go talk to Dustfinger now, uhm, bye," Farid hesitantly looked away from me and went towards the fire where Dustfinger was making shapes out of it. I watched as he was greeted by his mentor with a giant bear hug, they were all smiling around the fire, and then Farid looked back at me. He quickly looked away when I caught him.

BANG!

Battista stopped singing, everyone went silent, even the fairies seemed to quiet themselves.

The sound was so loud everyone covered their ears, it was familiar, I couldn't quite figure out where I had heard it before. Resa was mortified, she was staring at Mo whose eyes were as big as hers, and his hand immediately went to his chest where he had been-

"No! That's impossible!" I was whispering to mostly myself.

"What's impossible? What was that sound?" Doria whispered. He was looking at me, confused and a little scared. Then his eyes lit up with recognition, "that weapon you told me about, from your world, that shoots pieces of metal, do you think that sound was a-"

"No! It can't be! It doesn't exist here!" I whispered back, there was no way possible.

BANG! Again, the sound, but much, much louder, it seemed to go straight through the camp, followed shortly by some kind of impact.

Farid fell to his knees, he was holding his shoulder, and I heard a kind of pained moan. Nobody moved.

"Run!" I shouted! Dustfinger picked up Farid, and everyone ran, through the gates of Ombra, the guards seemed so confused they just let the strolling players go through, we were running to the castle, to inform Violante about what had happened.

Jacopo seemed to have heard the noise and was looking around at the sky in front of the castle, he saw us, his eyes immediately went to Farid in Dustfinger's arms, a pool of blood was spilling on the ground, "What happened?" he was shocked to see his favorite fire eater so pained.

"Tell your mother to come down here, and Brianna," Dustfinger said worriedly.

A couple of minutes later Jacopo came back with Violante, followed by Dustfinger's fiery red-headed daughter. "What happened, I heard a noise, and what's happened to that boy?" Violante asked quickly.

"He was shot" replied Mo, he was extremely angry as if he knew exactly who did it and was already planning his revenge.

"By an arrow? Was it one of the guards?" Violante was very concerned.

"No and no" Mo was looking at Farid, still angry

"What? Let me see," Brianna went over to Farid, had Dustfinger make him sit, and investigated the wound, "did you take whatever it was out? If something hit him it didn't just come out the other end."

We replied with a blank look.

"I see. Could he stay in one of the spare rooms?" Violante nodded, Brianna looked at Dustfinger, "I am going to have to take it out, and he is definitely going to need some rest, would you be able to get me some herbs from Mom's garden Dad?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Please, please, please Fengolio! Write please, for me?" I had been begging like this for almost fifteen minutes, he is such a stubborn old man! "What if when they take out the bullet he bleeds to death?" at the thought of it I started tearing up, I might not love him anymore, but that didn't mean that I hated him!

He sighed, "Fine, fine, but just this one time, ok?" He told his glass man Rosenquartz to start stirring the ink.

"Thank you!" I kissed him on the cheek, he just rolled his eyes at me.

The sun was close to setting and I was standing in front of a few of the pillars at the castle entrance, I looked at the paper Fengolio wrote, they were very good, it was as if they really wanted me to read them to life. I took a deep breath, but was cut off by some odd clinking noises. I looked up to see an orange glass woman, she was skipping around a few feet in front of me, I giggled, _glass people are so weird!_ I looked at the words again read them over a couple of times, and took in another deep breath, then I heard another noise, except, different. It sounded like the sound you would hear if glass bounced instead of broke, "what now?" I looked up and the glass woman wasn't there anymore, _since when were glass women that fast? _A girl stumbled out from behind one of the pillars, and started staring at me, she looked about my age, _what's she doing here at this time? _I just inwardly shrugged and looked at the paper with Fengolio's writing on it, only to look back up a moment later.

"Oh, crap!" I said I couldn't believe it.

I grabbed the girls arm and ran as fast as I could back to Fengolio's room she kept on tripping over her own feet, I figured it was just because of the trip the took here.

We were lucky. No one was out at this time of night, which meant that no one would see the girl running through Ombra, not wearing a dress like every single other woman in this time period, but some denim shorts, a weird shirt with cartoonish looking lions on it, and a pair of glasses.

We ran up the narrow flight of stairs and into Fengolio's tiny room. I ran over to Fengolio who was sleeping, I shook his shoulders, "wake up! It's important!"

"Wha…" Fengolio began, not opening his eyes, and then he started snoring again.

"Ow!"

I turned around to see the girl holding her shin, "in this world to?" she seemed to be asking herself.

I couldn't help it I laughed, but immediately became serious again, "how did you get here?"

"Well," she began, "I was at a reading of Inkheart at the-"

"They started printing Inkheart again?" I asked, all the books were stolen a while ago, and burnt, well except one which just so happened to be inside itself, not in our reality.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they've been printing it for a while, anyways, back to the story, so I was at a reading of Inkheart by the author, and-"

"Wait, wait, wait, I am the author of Inkheart" Fengolio chimed in drowsily.

"No Cornelia Funke is, who are you?" she asked she seemed kind of confused.

"I am Fengolio! The author of Inkheart!" he was yelling, he was so angry his face was red, all his drowsiness gone.

"Oh. So I guess I really am in the Inkworld" she said quietly.

"That's weird," I said in a kind of awe, "I call it the exact same thing."

"Oh my gosh!" You're Meggie!" she exclaimed very excitedly.

"How do you know my name?" Now, I was the one yelling.

"You and Mo are like, the main characters in the Inkheart series!" She was very happy at this realization, that is, until she finally noticed the tears pooling on the floor.


	4. Chapter 4

"You and Mo are like, the main characters in the Inkheart series!" She was very happy at this realization, that is, until she finally noticed the tears pooling on the floor, "did I say something, what's wrong?"

"I'm just… a story book character?" I asked trying not to let that much emotion into my voice, which I failed miserably at.

Fengolio, got up, "I have to go!" Guys just can't take it when they start seeing tears, even old men like Fengolio seemed that way. He anxiously ran down the stairs.

"Uh… well…" she looked like she didn't know what to say.

"Ok," I tried to fake a smile, but the tears seemed to be coming faster.

"Are you Ok?" She asked, looking really worried.

"Yes of course! I always guessed that maybe my reality wasn't really a real reality," I managed to keep my voice from cracking that time, and wiped the tears away, but she wasn't fazed.

"No you're not," she stated, "you can't just bottle it all up, spill." She said. _Of course, Cornelia Funke just had to read a smart girl here, couldn't she read somebody who could give it a break when I say I'm fine! Gosh!_

I sighed she wasn't going to take no for an answer was she? "I guess I just feel bad because, I don't get to be a part of reality, I can't ever have an effect on a real person, I don't exist." I whispered the last word; it's terrible to learn something like that.

"I know you love books," she said, "are you going to tell me that the characters in your favorite books have never had any effect on you? Really, when you think about it book characters can affect more people than actual people do, and you are kind of famous in my world, the books you are in, sell all over the world, I live in Florida and your author lives in Europe. Hey, you don't speak in any European language, or even accent! Well I guess that makes a little sense since she was reading out of the English version... anyways you are just as important as I am."

At this I looked up, I think I felt allot better, "thank you... What's your name? I didn't get to ask you."

"It's Nikky, and you're welcome," she said, she looked kind of relieved, "so, what was that paper you were about to read?"

"Oh yeah, I really need to read it, Farid got shot!" I was fumbling around my dress pockets for the paper.

Nikki was in shock, "is he okay? Wait a sec, how are there guns here, I am in the right Inkheart right?"

I nodded, and finally found the paper, "here it is! Do you want to listen?" she nodded, so I started to read.

"That sounded just like how Cornelia Funke read it!" she said once I finished.

"I wouldn't be to surprised since she was the one who read you here," I said kind of quietly, "knowing Farid, as soon as they take out that bullet, Farid will be up and probably want to come over here," I cringed, _I doubt he will actually get over me anytime soon, he really needs to accept that I'm in love with Doria. _"They were planning on getting all the herbs and stuff ready by about, well, now, so he will probably have it out within a good hour," I looked at the watch I had asked Doria to make me, he was amazing, I just showed him Mo's old watch and he opened it up and copied the mechanisms exactly for my watch. "Do you want me to send you back now?" I asked, though she was taking being read into a book surprisingly well, _she does seem a little off._

_"_No way, I need to at least stay for a couple more days, since I'm probably never going to come back here again, and it is completely beautiful here. There's the fairy nest!" she said pointing at the bee hive looking nest hanging from the ceiling, "I guess there not out since it's winter, and are they really the same color as Doria's eyes?"

"Yeah, I don't usually like blue eyes that much, but his eyes are such a pretty blue! Exactly like the fairies!" I said dreamily, I was smiling, thinking about Doria's fairy blue eyes.

"I hope I'll get to see him!" Nikky said, getting all excited again.

"I'm sure you will get to see him, maybe tomorrow!" I said, then I told her pretty much all I knew about the Inkworld and how the creatures looked and acted, then she started telling me about all these weird new technologies, like an IPad, this place doesn't even have plumbing!

It felt like we had been talking for only minutes, but when I finally looked at my watch, an hour had passed, I heard the door down stairs open, "right on cue," Nikky looked confused, then I told her, "Farid's here."

"Cool! I hope it went well!" she said, "Of course it went well!" she told herself, she went ahead of me out the door, and before I could register what was happening she fell out the door, since the step is like a foot below it, and I knew that the flight of stairs was very long, so I slowly walked towards the door expecting to see a bloody Nikky at the bottom of the stairs. Instead I saw Farid's shirtless back to me, with a bunch of gauze on the shoulder, I guess he couldn't put a shirt over the wound, he was holding Nikky up around the waste with his good arm. I walked down the steps to them, their noses were less than a centimeter apart, they were in a kind of shock and staring at each other, both wide-eyed, "Um... thanks for saving my life," she said still kind of frozen.

"You're welcome, for saving your life, I'm Farid by the way," he said, now smiling.

She immediately smiled back, "I'm Nikki."

I cleared my throat, they both blushed, but were still smiling at each other.

"Can you walk up the stairs Nikky?" Farid asked.

"Oh no, I might have hurt my ankle a little, I guess you'll just have to carry me," Nikky said pretending to be sad she had to be carried by the hot shirtless guy who just saved her life.

"Oh well, I guess I'll just have to..." he said, scooping her up in his arms easily and taking her upstairs to the room.

He didn't tell me he had feelings for me until after a whole year of knowing each other, yet here he is, I'm pretty sure he just fell in love with Nikky judging by the way he was just looking at her, I sighed, and followed them upstairs.


	5. Chapter 5

I was getting very annoyed. It had been almost a minute just sitting in the tiny room and they just kept staring and smiling, _at least I know he's over me now. _I looked at the gauze wrapped around his shoulder and remembered the situation we were in.

"How could Farid have been shot?" I asked, we destroyed that rifle that Mortola had brought, a long time ago. "guns cant exist in this book, I just don't get it."

Nicky looked like she was thinking really hard, "I was always kind of sad that not all the loose ends were tied up in Inkdeath," she said, then continued on, "probably the villain with the most actual power over this story, just wandered into the mountains, I mean seriously why didn't the author have Orpheus die, its not like she's writing another book! So unless this world had an extremely huge advancement in technology, it was read here from our world, by Orpheus.

_Why hadn't I thought of that?_

"We have to find him then, before he gets it in his head to try and kill someone else!" Farid said, he rubbed his shoulder, if he'd been shot just a few inches to the side, it would have gone straight through his heart, and he would have died… again.

"There's probably a village across the mountain or something!" Nikky said, snapping me out of my bad memory, "we could all go and find him!"

Farid was getting excited, they were both grinning, _don't they understand how serious this is?_

"We should start packing, I can get you some clothes from Fengolio's landlady, her clothes might be a bit big though…" he said, Nikky was almost at the verge of being too skinny, "What you have on could be okay I guess, we just need some coats."

They started talking more about packing, so I decided to go tell Doria what was going on, he would probably end up coming with us anyways. As I was walking to the little shop he'd been selling his many smaller inventions in, I couldn't help but think about the flower he gave me the night Farid came back, it still sparkled the same resonating dark blue it did when I got it, and it had been more than a day since he gave it to me, I had put it in a vase on the windowsill, it was very pretty.

"hey," I said as I walked in, I kissed him for a few seconds, "we figured out who brought the guns here, it was really obvious, I don't know how I had managed to never think of it."

His eyes widened, he hesitated "who?" He seemed almost scared to know who it was, _Weird._

"Orpheus of course!" I said, "I mean who else could have done it?"

He looked blank for a second, then when it finally seemed to register in his head, "how could we not have thought of that?" he asked, baffled.

"I have no idea!" I started looking at the little things on the shelves, there were toys for little kids that were shaped like helicopters, and actually flew for a couple of seconds if you pulled the little string fast enough, but most of the store had watches, which were now all the rage in Ombra, thanks to my favorite inventor.

"It's after dark, wont Mo be worried about you about now?" he asked, still kind of in a bit of a shock after learning that Orpheus hadn't went off and froze to death up in the mountains.

_Crap! My dad is probably freaking out right now, he was kind of overprotective. _"I have to go, goodnight, love you!"

He smiled "love you too!" I kissed him again very quickly and ran home, halfway there I remembered that Nikky was still at Fengolio's house, I ran back, I needed to get there quick, so I went through an alleyway as a shortcut, I saw a guard stumbling through in my direction, he looked extremely drunk, so I figured I'd just go the long way, but when I turned around I bumped into another seemingly drunken guard.

"Hello there…" he said with a sickening grin.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hello there…" he said with a sickening grin.

I was so afraid, that I couldn't even scream.

I couldn't believe that this was actually happening, I knew very well how dangerous it was for a girl my age to be alone in Ombra after dark, but I've done it so many times before, all I ever had to do was avoid the guards. My mother would always yell at me when I came back if I had been out too late, sometimes when I came back she'd be crying, I couldn't blame her though, this almost happened to her, but Mo saved her before they could do anything to her, where is my dad now? He was never happy when I came home too late either, I doubt he would save me this time, he hadn't played the role of the "Bluejay" since he killed the Adderhead, No one was around besides those drunken guards, Doria was still at the shop, my parents at home, Farid and Nikky were still at Fengolio's. So I decided to take it into my own hands.

I slipped my hand into my dress pocket, while the first guard I had seen, was lumbering towards me, I felt around trying to find it, _where is it?_

"You're quite a pretty one. Aren't you with the Strolling players?" the guard who I'd managed to bump into, asked smirking, "yes I saw you singing a Bluejay song in the marketplace, you do have a pretty voice, why don't you say something?" Violante hadn't changed very many of the laws yet, which meant that any person who is actually living in Ombra was allowed to commit any crime against strolling players, without any form of punishment.

I glanced behind me, the other guard was getting closer, both of the guards were somewhat young looking, since most of the older men had died in battle a long time ago, I was urgently searching for it in my pocket, he just kept coming closer, until he was so close that he finally spun me around to face him and grabbed my shoulders, he yanked me forward so that his lips were touching my ears, and whispered, "stupid girl," At that moment I found what I had been looking for and thrust my pencil into his stomach.

"You bi-" he started but immediately found himself coughing violently, I saw the blood dripping from his mouth and nose, he pulled the now dripping pencil out of his abdomen, and flinched painfully, still coughing up blood, he threw me against the wall, knocking the breath out of me. He might have been losing blood, but he was still stronger than I was. He stopped coughing, but his breathing was getting more hoarse, he quickly walked over to me and once again he was whispering into my ear, "I… am… going… to… kill… you," he was gasping in between words, his feet started slipping around on the ground, so he took hold of my arms to balance himself, he looked down and saw that he was slipping in a huge puddle of his own blood, he erupted into another coughing fit, I felt blood spattering onto my face, he put his hand around my throat, but he was so weak he could hardly put any pressure, he kept closing his eyes, then opening them after a few seconds, losing consciousness. _Is he going to die? _I know he just tried to strangle me, but I didn't want something like that on my chest, I always was disgusted when I saw my dads "Bluejay" side, he'd come home with blood on his clothes, I didn't want to murder anyone, but the guard fell backwards, and didn't move again.

The other guard looked confused, he must have been really drunk, but after a second he unsheathed his sword, and poked the bloody man now on the ground, the body didn't react, he looked furious, but then smiled and he put the point against my neck, _I guess my story is over now. _I closed my eyes, and felt tears dripping down my cheek, I heard the sword hit the brick wall behind me.

_That's weird, I kind of feel like I didn't just die._ I heard someone drop, I wondered if I was having an out of body experience, and just heard myself fall, but I couldn't see anything.

"Meggie!" It was my dad that I heard, I guess I am dead, maybe he'll be taking me to heaven or something. "Open your eyes Meggie!"

I opened my eyes like he said, "Mo! I'm not dead?" I was so happy I could actually see him right in front of me.

"No you're not, are you okay?" he asked, he looked fearless like he always did when he became the "Bluejay."

I started to run and hug him but immediately slipped on the blood on the ground, he caught me before I could fall onto the bodies of both the guards piled on top of each other, and I froze. _I killed them._ I cried into my dad's shoulder the whole way home.


	7. Chapter 7

"Ok, so were going to go in as quietly as possible, you might as well just change into something else and I will just put your dress In the fire-pit, your mother would not be happy to see her only daughters dress covered in blood," whispered Mo, as we walked inside. I knew my mother very well, and she would die if she found out what had almost happened.

"Oh my god!" There she was, staring at my spotted dress, I already saw the tears coming in my moms eyes, "what happened? Is that your blood?"

"No! I'm fine; I can take care of myself!" I yelled, and I did take care of myself…

"What were you doing out so late, I thought you might have died! And it looks like that's almost what it came to!" She yelled back at me, more tears flowing.

"Don't freak out! I said that I can take care of myself! Mo doesn't ever get all wigged out just because I stay out late!" I was no longer in control of what I was saying, it was all pouring out, but I guess it was always there.

"I will freak out! I don't know why your father doesn't agree with me, I need to know where you were and what you were doing!" she yelled, we've had fights like this before, but it was never this bad, I guess the circumstances were different this time though.

"Fine! I figured out that Orpheus is still alive and read guns into this world, I went to tell Doria, and when I came back I… I…" I couldn't finish, I didn't want to think about the two people I had recently killed.

They were silent, jaws dropped; Mo was the first one to talk, "Orpheus?"

"Yes and a girl named Nikky was read here by someone in the real world." I could never tell Mo that her "real world" was not our "real world," that we were just storybook characters, what he didn't know couldn't hurt him, it definitely hurt me to know it though.

"We need to find Orpheus, and then we need to, well…" He didn't want to say kill him, he knew how much me and Resa hated what he became when he was 'the Bluejay'"

"We have to kill him this time," my mom finished for him surprisingly, "before he tries to hurt anyone else."

"That's what Farid was saying earlier, we are sure he's somewhere beyond the mountains somewhere, in a village or something, trying to build up his wealth again." I told them, still in a kind of shock at what my mother just said.

"We should leave by tomorrow," my mom stated, eager to kill him.

_That is so soon. _ I was ready though; I was going to help kill Orpheus, the one who tried to kill my ex.

"Wait, so who is going to look for Orpheus? We need to organize this," Mo was just as eager as Resa.

"If we are going to have to climb that mountain it will need to be the strongest people, but we don't want to take too many." I said.

"Well, I am definitely going with you," Resa said, very confident.

"No your not," Mo said, "If you go with us who is going to take care of Max?" My new little brother, he was a little over one year old now, very cute, and apparently he was special, and by special I mean that at night he turns into a bird like my mom, that's what using crazy seeds while you're pregnant does to you, just so you know.

"Oh yeah… Couldn't Minerva take care of him?" she asked,_ wow, she must really hate Orpheus to actually leave her baby with someone else._

"And how is Minerva supposed to react when he flies out the window?" Mo pointed out.

"Fine," I suppressed a laugh at my moms pout.

"So what if it's me, Doria, Dustfinger, Farid and you, Nikky could stay here with mom." I suggested.

Mo smiled, but immediately stopped when mom said, "you're grounded forever Meggie, and you are not leaving the house anytime soon, let alone leaving Ombra with a killing party."

"But Mom!-"

"No Meggie!" they replied at the same time.

"You can't go out to do something as dangerous as this, you almost died, less than an hour ago; you are not going to go on a mission where the other side has loaded guns!" Mo said sternly.

I couldn't believe it! This was huge! _Didn't Nikky say that I was the main character in the story? How could I actually miss the climax? I mean, unless it switches point of view… well crap, I guess it is possible that I will get left out._

"I'll get Dustfinger, Farid, the strongman, Doria, and maybe even the Black Prince and his bear." Mo said planning it out in his head.

_I really don't like getting left out though. _It was kind of sad, I guess I'd only get in the way though.

"So, this means Nikky will have to sleep at Minerva's tonight then. Hopefully she'll figure something out though."

"In the morning before they leave, I will take her over here so you can make sure she's not all freaked out by the whole thing about literally being in another world," my mom told me, even though I knew Nikky seemed to be completely at ease about the entire thing. Maybe she was just crazy or something.


	8. Chapter 8

Resa came by with Nikky at about eight o'clock in the morning, Nikky looked sad, probably because her new boyfriend is leaving on an amazing adventure without her. They were all going to be gone for probably a while, maybe more than a month, it would take time to climb over the mountains, and then find a way to kill Orpheus, get rid of all the guns, and come back over the mountains. I was going to miss everything. Mo had already organized everyone who was going, it was Farid, Doria, Dustfinger, the strongman, and the Black Prince and his bear decided to come. It was kind of sad. Resa, Nikky, and I were going to walk with them to the foot of the mountain. I put on one of my best dresses, Minerva let Nikky wear one of her dresses, my dresses were made for my height which was a lot shorter than hers, Doria always liked to tease me about my shortness. I smiled thinking about him, I put on some of the mascara that they somehow sell in Ombra, the lipstick type stuff they had tasted weird though, so I just dabbed on some berry juice, I wanted Doria to remember me pretty on his trip.

Someone started knocking on my door. "Meggie, its time to go now!" My mom still was angry at me; she didn't really get over things easily.

"Yeah! Just a sec," I brushed my hair and swiftly put it into a loose braid, and decided to put the blue flower Doria gave me in my hair, it looked gorgeous! Where could he have gotten it?

I came out, and rushed to the door, Nikky was already there, looking kind of impatient. I smiled, it was going to be a long month or so if she was going to be like this after a few hours of not seeing Farid.

Resa came soon after me and we all hurried out the door, this was going to be the last time I'll see Doria for a while.

On the way to the mountain I was just letting my mind drift, _I wonder how Farid thinks of me now that he's in love, maybe he will actually want to be friends, that'd be awesome, I still love Farid, just not the same way, and he would make an awesome friend. Why has Doria been acting so weird lately, just the way he talks to me, it seems like something's bothering him, but what ever bothers Doria? It might just be because of all the stuff that's been going on, starting from when Farid got shot. And what's up with this whole book inside of a book thing, was Nikky even from the "real world," I mean when you really think about it, in the "real world," I doubt people can actually get read in and out of books, and would this be just the book continuing on its own, or the author writing it, maybe it's just some random kid making a story continuing off of a book created by a good author. If so, would people be reading my thoughts? Are these my thoughts? I bet the people reading my thoughts have no idea of the turmoil a book character has to go through when they learn how not real they are, it sucks._

I was so deep in thought that I tripped on a root, my mom caught me and I realized that we were no longer on the dirt road, but under the shade of trees, we were pretty much at the foot of the mountain, I saw Doria, I ran over to him, and kissed him, after a few seconds I heard someone clearing there throat, I opened my eyes and off to the side I saw Mo, I quickly pulled away, Doria smiled, it always made his blue eyes sparkle, I loved that! I could feel my cheeks reddening, _why do I blush so much?_ I just took his hand, my dad couldn't get mad at that, he loved Doria though, Mo was laughing at me. I looked over and saw Nikky rush over to Farid, she looked kind of awkward, like she didn't know what to do, I guess I'd feel that way too if I had just fallen in love with a guy, but not really have an established relationship with him, so it would be weird, but Farid got over it really quickly and just kissed her, she looked completely surprised. I turned back to Doria, "be careful, Ok?" he was so cute, and he was mine too!

"I will be fine, don't worry about me," he said, he looked at the beautiful flower in my hair, "the flower really brings out your eyes, that's what I was thinking about when I picked it."

"It's so beautiful, I love it." I smiled, and kissed him quickly when Mo had his back turned.

"I love you," he told me.

"I love you too," all the people who were going on the trip were heading up the mountain, Doria hugged me quickly and went with the others.

Then, all of a sudden there was a person sized chunk of ice rolling and tumbling clumsily down the mountain. Everyone jumped out of the way, and it landed with a thud on the grass.

They all crowded around it, it must have fallen from the frozen tops of the mountain, the shape was weird though, I had to wait for other people to get out of the way, I heard a bunch of gasps and finally pushed a few out of the way, and realized just how big a deal this was.


	9. Chapter 9

It couldn't be possible, could it? I didn't understand, I mean, we were so sure that Orpheus had read the guns here.

I was staring at a huge block of ice, red liquid suspending, frozen, in front of orpheus's now blue, thin face, the sight was disgusting. I saw Farid standing defensively in front of Nikky, judging by the color drained from her face, she had already seen the frozen mass despite Farid's efforts. Doria was staring at it, he looked afraid, maybe even a little angry, but overall he was on edge, when I took his hand he flinched back in surprise, but then held it tighter. Every one seemed to go blank, no one really could comprehend what was happening.

Farid broke the stunned silence, "how could this… why…"

"We have to find out who brought the guns," Mo stated, he still looked as confused as everyone else, none of this computed.

"Then what are we going to do?" asked Dustfinger.

"Lets go home, if there is any new information, tell me," the Black Prince said confidently, but his eyes were just as stunned and afraid as anyone else's.

Everyone started to disperse, going to their homes, Doria walked with me a few yards behind the people, fingers entwined, he was extremely tense, I couldn't stand to see him like this, I love him.

When we arrived at our house, I looked at Doria again, he was just looking at me, more distant though, I kissed him goodbye, and followed my new houseguests inside.

The house was a lot more crowded than usual, Nikky was staying here and, inevitably, so was Farid. Nikky was going to sleep in the guestroom, while Farid was to sleep on our couch. I still think it's kind of annoying to see them constantly gawking at eachother.

Mo was pacing, thinking very hard, I didn't want to disturb him so I just went to my room, collapsing on my bed.

After about a minute of just laying, deciding what to do, I heard a knocking at my door, "come in," I said, immediately Nikky entered.

"I have to tell you something important," she said quietly.

"What?" I said kind of annoyed, after so much drama today, I didn't want to start a conversation with anyone, and I had a feeling that she would want to talk about Farid, and just the thought about talking about guys exasperated me right now.

"I think I might know who brought the guns here," she said looking highly stressed and worried.

"Just like you thought last time," I said bitterly, it might have been a little rude, but I wasn't in the mood to be polite right now.

She looked offended at this, "you may not like this," she said, "its only a guess," she paused for a long time, I got impatient.

"What is it Nikky?" I said, I was extremely stressed and tired.

"The only person who could possibly build something like a gun in Ombra is… well… is Doria." She whispered that last one.

I didn't know how to respond to that at first, "no, that is impossible, he would have to know how to build a gun, he couldn't just decide he wanted to build a weapon that has the exact damage as a regular gun has, plus, he wouldn't build something like that no matter how much anyone payed him at all, ever since the Adderhead died, he has hated violence." I knew that Nikky was new here, but this thing is kind of something I wouldn't expect from her, it was probably because from reading the books, she could tell that Farid didn't like Doria, maybe she didn't like me either.

"But what if-"

"No, Nikky" I said, probably a little meaner than I intended, I regretted that, I may be in a bad mood, but I don't want to be a witch.

"Im sorry," she said, clearly a little offended, and kind of sad.

"It's okay, I guess it could look that way from a certain perspective, but Doria is out of the question," I said, I really hoped we wouldn't have this discussion again.

When she left the room I just collapsed again, I hoped that I'd get some sleep, but I had so much on my mind.


	10. Chapter 10

I felt a lot better when I woke up, I could here some chatting going on from somewhere in the house, I went to the living room and found Farid and Nikky giggling together.

"…and then, she shouted, 'Nikky's high on fun dip again!'" Nikky was apparently telling a story about friends from her own world, Farid was cracking up, I smiled, I remembered having fun like that with my friends at school before I was read into the book.

"Hey," I said, they looked at me, both somehow extremely happy, just because they were in each others company, I guess that's how I feel around Doria, sometimes, I guess we both have to be in a good mood for that to happen though, and since this whole thing began, that has never really seemed to have happened.

"How are you?" Nikky asked, she looked a little remorseful, now recalling yesterday, but one glance at Farid and she brightened up again.

"I think I just needed to get some sleep, the past few days have been just completely draining," I said, I felt relieved after having slept off some of the stress. Mo walked in, the look on his face brought back the harsh "reality", if you can even call it that.

"Good morning," said Nikky brightly. Farid started playing with her hair, she giggled, they were completely in their own world.

"Well, its morning," said Mo, he had dark circles under his eyes and I wondered if he had gotten any sleep.

"Are you Ok?" I asked, I hoped he wouldn't worry himself sick.

"Do I look Ok to you?" He asked.

_Sassy this morning are we? _ I stifled that comment, "did you think of anything?" I asked.

"No, I can't think of anything! How did these guns get here?" I don't think he was necessarily talking to me.

I went into the kitchen, my mother was wiping off the counters with one hand and holding Max with the other, "do you need some help?" I asked.

"No," she said, she seemed kind of mad, just as stressed as Mo and I were, "has anyone figured anything out yet?" she asked, focusing all her energy into vigorously wiping the counters, and balancing my tiny brother in the other, he was watching in amazement at the rag's quick movement on the slick surface of the counter.

"No," I said, I didn't really understand how any of this happened. I noticed some odd looking flowers in a basket, they seemed to have almost artificial looking colors, but very pale, and just small puffs of cottony looking blossoms, "where did those come from?" I asked.

"Oh, those are actually imported overseas, from some weird place I can never remember the name of," she said, admiring the peculiar flowers.

I noticed something though, other than the flowers, the basket looked as if it were woven by machine, I took a closer look, when I felt it I was very surprised, the wood was synthetic, it seems as though wherever this came from was a country that was more advanced in technology, I wondered how similar to my old "reality" it was. "You don't remember what the place is called?" I asked her, it was weird that a place like that could completely slip both our minds.

"No," she said, thinking hard, "you should ask Mo, see if he can remember."

So I went into the other room, Farid and Nikky had moved to the couch, still giggling and talking to each other, Mo was sitting by our oil lamp, on his chair, "hey, what was the name of that country just east of ours?" I asked, "Resa got a few flowers in a weird basket."

He thought about it for a second, "it's called Jezyria, it's surprisingly advanced for a country in this world, they have electricity, light bulbs, factories…" he stopped talking, and It seemed to hit him the same moment it hit me. "Oh," it was almost too low for me to here, "I will go tell the Prince," he got up abruptly and rushed out the door, I followed quickly; I didn't want to miss out on anything else.

We were running to the market place, the Black Prince was almost always there this time of day, surprisingly we ran into Doria, Mo didn't slow his pace at all, so I just gestured for Doria to come with us, he hesitated, but after about a second he was running alongside me, the same look on his face as he has always had recently, we had to figure this whole thing out soon.

Finally we reached the market, the Black Prince was admiring a red necklace, probably considering buying it for his new fiancé, Violante. We raced over to him, and Mo put his hand on the Prince's shoulder, he jumped in surprise. "There's something important I have to tell you," Mo said, just loud enough for the Black Prince to hear. It took a second, then his eyes widened, fully understanding just how important this news is.

We walked into a nearby alley so that we could speak privately, Doria looking as nervous as ever. "Ok, so what did you find out?" The Black Prince asked, an intense expression taking his face.

"The guns had to have come from Jezyria, it is the only possibility, they are so much more technologically advanced then us, I don't even know why none of us had considered it," Mo said quietly, as if someone might overhear.

"Oh," he became very thoughtful, after a few more seconds of us just watching for the Black Prince's reaction, he finally asked, "didn't you go there to sell your inventions, about a year ago, Doria?"

"Yes, I didn't really have that much success though, they already had so much technology, I didn't have anything that was better than all of their innovations," he said, and then he seemed to be taken aback by a bad memory.

"Then you will definitely be in the group going to Jezyria. I know a guy, so we should be able to get a cheap ship over there within a week, we just need to organize the group that is going."

"Oh, ok," Doria said, kind of surprised.

"Then who are the people that are going to be in the group?" Asked Mo, looking skeptical at this very quickly put together plan.

"We will figure that out later, right now, I need to buy that beautiful red necklace, Violante will love it!" the Black Prince exclaimed giddily, I stifled a giggle, he really did love Violante.


	11. Chapter 11

The group was Mo, Dustfinger, Farid, Nikky, Doria and me. The Black Prince stole some uniforms for us, they were light blue T-shirts with khaki pants, and a hoodie.

We stepped into the cruise ship sized boat. Something wasn't right. We looked around us. The crew was all on deck and we were somewhere underneath. Everything looked modern, like, reality-modern… at least modern in my reality… But, if I'm not real, then I guess I really don't know what "modern" means in reality. Anyways, the floors, the walls, the doors, even the ceilings, were all stainless steel, cool and smooth to the touch. Something still seemed… just… wrong, I guess. The atmosphere, it was almost, I don't know… sinister? Mo lead us to a door, he was holding a floor plan the Black Prince had given him earlier, it showed every last detail of the ship. He pushed the door open, very slowly though, the metal door seemed heavy. Everyone filed in, I came in last.

The setting was pretty much the same, all shiny surfaces, except, on the floor, it looked like they had brought cattle in this room, which was confirmed by the bored looking cow in the corner who just glanced at us, then decided she'd rather just stare at the wall. luckily, it seemed as though they had replaced the hay recently, considering it was mostly clean, only the faintest aroma of manure scented the room. The hay was scattered around the floor, I'd have to remind Farid and Dustfinger to not play with fire in here.

Everyone decided to sit down, I sat next to a nervous looking Doria. "Getting on this boat was a bad idea," Doria whispered ruefully to me.

"What? Why-" I started, but was interrupted by the door to the room, when it swung open abruptly.

Doria flipped up his hood.

At least 20 armed men stormed purposefully into the room and pointed their guns at us, all of them looked exactly like Mortola's. They all wore metallic masks, which had two square shaped holes for the eyes, and a slit near the mouth, and they had the uniforms of the crew members. Guns were pointed at each of us.

"We need to tell the Rose that we have stow-aways," one man with a gruffly voice said to the leader of the group, who stood in front of the others, and had no mask.

But, the leader was pre-occupied. His cold, blue eyes stared at Farid. He ran his hand through the bleach blonde hair that reached his shoulders. "I have to apologize," he began, still looking at Farid, his words were like acid, "we seemed to have forgotten something," he took a step toward Farid, "my men just aren't very reliable sometimes," he took another step, "you see," he said, slowly walking towards Farid, "I don't like to leave things unfinished," another step, "and you know what?" He was standing above Farid, who was still sitting.

Farid glared at the man fearlessly, "what?"

"YOUR'E NOT FINISHED!" the man yanked Farid up by the hair and pushed him up against the wall, he shoved his gun into Farids face, "I know everything about this little group, you were healed in the castle! You were supposed to be dead!" he pushed the gun harder on Farid's cheek, "and now," the man was breathing heavy and stared right into Farid's eyes when he said, "your'e dead."

I saw his finger tense on the trigger, and closed my eyes. Just before the deafening bang. I blinked down at the floor, but couldn't make out anything due to the tears filling up my eyes. _Goodbye, Farid. _I thought to myself. _I love you._

Through the blur, I began to see bright golden yellow, and my skin felt kind of singed, I tried unsuccessfully to clear my eyes enough to see what was happening, there were more bangs. _Oh no, _I thought, _they're killing everyone!_ I put my face in my hands, I was crying even harder. After more than a dozen shots, it was dead silent. I was pulled up gently by the arm, I knew it had to be one of the armed men, "NO!" I shouted, expecting another gunshot.

"Calm down," Doria said soothingly, keeping his grip on my arm," it's over," he said, "it's ok now."

I opened my eyes, and was about to close them again, just before I realized the dead bodies on the ground were the armed men. They were all scorched. Their guns looked like they had exploded, which was very possible. I remembered Farid, and, expecting the worse, looked at where he was last standing. He was still standing, and smiling evilly, he ran to Nikky and hugged her, told her something too quiet for anyone to hear, she looked pretty shaken up. I smiled, anyone who could conjure up fire could blow up a gun, easily. But I still tried to avoid looking at the bodies.

It wasn't over though.

No one closed the door, and no one noticed the tall man walk in.

"Let me introduce myself," a tall man, with grey eyes, almost white, no depth in them at all, and straight black hair, perfectly parted in half, and cut in a straight line at the middle of his neck, his skin was so pale, it was as if he had no pigment. He held his hand up as Farid held a single flame between his fists, Doria was pulling at his hood, trying to hide his face as much as possible, "I am only the ship's captain, you can call me Ro, I was not a part of this… violent, terrible, ignorant group. But, I do know how they got their weapons."

"How?" Mo asked, immediately deciding to trust the captain.

"They had found an inventor in Ombra, he was about to destroy this weapon," said Ro, gesturing towards one of the misshapen guns, "they easily got him to betray his stupid friends, and show them how to build one, for only one piece of silver!" Ro looked at hooded Doria, "when I first came in here," he said, "I thought you looked very familiar." He reached into the pocket of his uniform, "hmm… where is it? Oh!" he exclaimed, "here it is," His grin turned to a scowl, as he put the, very short, gun to Doria's forehead. Ro used the gun to flip the hood back. His arm was fully extended, like Ro was trying to keep the gun as far from himself as possible, "If you do to my gun, what you did to those, Farid," he said, "I will lose an arm, and he will lose his life."

"What do you want Rose?" asked Doria, he was trying to hide his fear, but failing.

"The plant. Now. I know you have it."

"I don't."

"Well then, I know who does," said the Rose, "I will just… take it," the Rose slowly removed the gun from Doria's fore head, then, swung his arm, still extended, toward me, I could feel the cold gun pressing into my head.

"DON"T" Doria yelled, "keep your gun on me. Meggie, give him the flower."

"The flower?" I looked at him, confused, then it clicked in my head, I reached into my bag, and pulled out a long black box. Then took out the deep blue flower Doria had given me the night Farid had returned, the same night that he was shot, probably the same night that the flower was stolen… I stretched out my arm with the flower towards the Rose, trying not to get to close. He took it.

He shot Doria.

It happened in an instant, in fact, the Rose was smiling, his hand was touching mine still, his smile got even wider as he pulled the trigger. He was still touching my hand when Doria fell. It was silent again as the sound of Dorias body hitting the floor echoed in the bloody room. After a second of everyone being stunned, the Rose laughed loudly. But was cut off half a second later, because the gun exploded.

The Rose dropped, a smile on his face.

I dropped too, I dropped to my knees and stared at the floor, Doria's blood was mixing with the Rose's. I was completely still, I was still for a very long time. I didn't hear Mo ask, "where is Dustfinger?" I was empty, I loved Doria, more than anything. Now he was gone. There was no way it could be taken back.

"No…" said a weak, grief stricken voice, "Dustfinger…" I wasn't empty enough to not hear that though.

I looked up at Farid, who was hugging Nikky, he was crying, but, he was whispering to Nikky, It wasn't Farid who said that. I felt two very strong, yet completely opposite emotions, extreme sadness, and overwhelming happiness, which when you mix those together you end up with a little bit of guilt too. I looked at Doria, he was sitting up, as if nothing had happened, but he was upset. I knew, and he knew that Dustfinger had given himself up. Dustfinger had died, yet again, except this was probably the last time. I rushed over to Doria and kissed him. He was a bit disoriented, but he kissed me back.

Then, surprise, surprise, Dustfinger walked back into the room. Smiling really big at Mo, who was shocked. "Wha-" I began to ask, but Dustfinger just laughed. Dustfinger just won't die will he?

* * *

><p>"I'm ready," Nikky said, holding Farid's hand.<p>

I was standing with Farid and Nikky in the middle of a grassy field, I was about to read them back to Nikky's "real world," I was holding a faded sheet of notebook paper, it had the words that would send them back on it.

"Ok," I said, quickly checking the cell phone Doria made for me, to make sure I had Nikky's phone number. I hugged Farid, then hugged Nikky, I was crying, but they said they would visit. Nikky would text me if she wanted to come by, and I could just read her into our little book within a book, within a book, and probably within a Fanfiction story.

I wonder if there will be a sequal.

**You're crazy Meggie.**

"What was that?" _Nikky and farid are looking at me weird now. What was that voice? I'm so confused!_

**I'm the author. Seriously, don't freak out.**

_Um... ok, but if you're the author, then wouldn't you be making, er, writing me freaking out?_

**Hey! Don't tell me how to do my job!**

_Sorry..._

**It's Ok, but I don't know if I will be able to write a sequal.**

_Aw... why not?_

**I just don't have enough time.**

_Then... what's going to happen to me while you're gone?_

**Huh. I don't really know... Haven't thought about it too much... I guess you... Well... I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually.**

_Does that mean you're righting a sequal? I don't want you to leave... What if I DIE?_

**Oh please, you're not going to die if I'm gone. But, you're character is a bit boring... I bet killing off the main character would add a little excitement to the story...**

_No thank you... Please don't._

_So... about the sequal?_

BANG!

_Fine. I get it no sequal... just, don't try to hit me with lightning again. Please._

**Don't backtalk me anymore. Are you going to read Farid and Nikky back to "reality," or not?**

_Yeah, sure... um, Ok._

**And they all lived happily ever after. Unless I make a sequal. In that case I will make them suffer.**


End file.
